WESTMINSTER, Colo. -- While the economy is undoubtedly down, trade is up. Old-fashioned person-to-person and new millennium Internet trading are seeing a big jump this year, and it's not just with individuals.

At BarterQuest.com an online trading site, first-time visitor traffic is up 500 percent from January to February this year. The owner of Itex, another site offering ways for you to trade one item for another, said Denver is his fastest growing market. He said Coloradans seem to "get" bartering quicker than Internet users in Florida or Los Angeles.

Community Connect Trade Association in Westminster specializes in business to business bartering and it's bucking the national trend: It is growing in a recession. It has 136 businesses already and recently hired employees.

"And we expect to expand rapidly over the next year," said CCTA founder Annette Riggs.

For a one-time $395 membership fee and 5-percent per transaction charge, CCTA gives businesses access to the other groups to barter with and gives them the comfort that CCTA will collect if there ever is a bartering problem.

CCTA is a for-profit company capitalizing on the barter bonanza.

"We hope that we can keep some people from laying off a few people that they might have and a few small businesses from going out of business that might have by conserving their cash," Riggs said.

It's working for Verlo Mattress Factory owner Dick Sumerfield.

"All of the track lighting in here we did through a barter company. The carpet gets cleaned from a barter member. The walls were painted by a barter member. Definitely, we use it every week," Sumerfield said.

Say the Hotel Boulderado needs mattresses. Sumerfield may trade them a few mattresses, even if he doesn't want the empty hotel rooms they're offering. Instead, he gets a credit through CCTA for the value of what he traded.

Then, whenever he does need something, he can use those credits through any of the other businesses, such as the painter or the plumber.

"It's business that I might not otherwise have had," Sumerfield said. "And in this economic climate, there's a lot of businesses where cash flow is very tight."

But the IRS will penalize you though if you fail to report bartered goods and services as taxable income.

"It's taxable income to you and you need to report it," said IRS Senior Individual Tax Adviser Carol Walker. "The same procedures and reporting information procedures on the Internet apply as well as in person."

Walker said participants can use the 1099-B form and try to trade things of equal fair market value to avoid late payment penalties plus interest, and avoid the possibility of civil or criminal actions.

But without question, more and more people are calling Uncle Sam about their last trade.

"Within just the last year or so you started hearing more about it. It's just becoming active, more active again, I should say," Walker said.